WEB VIDEO: Who Wants to Be a Billionaire - Congressional Edition

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

(Boulder, CO) -- Eric Weissmann, candidate for Congress in Colorado's 2nd Congressional District, Tuesday launched a web video, "Who Wants to be a Billionaire -- Congressional Edition," calling attention to incumbent Congressman Jared Polis' efforts to profit by making investments about which he had inside information as a Member of Congress.

Since revelations of Polis' insider trading went public in Hoover Institute Fellow Peter Schweitzer’s book "Throw Them All Out" in January, Weissmann has asked Polis to disavow the practice in the future and to return the profits he made on his previous insider trading exploits to the taxpayers. Polis has had no response.

"This video tells a simple story: Jared Polis has used his exemption from the laws that apply to the rest of us for his own, personal profit. By exploiting his unique access to information about companies over which he had regulatory oversight to profit from investments, Congressman Polis has violated the public trust," Weissmann said.

"Who was Congressman Polis looking out for? Might he have been more motivated by personal profit than the public interest as he shaped this bill in the Congress? Coloradans shouldn't have to wonder.

"Coloradans deserve a Member of Congress who looks out for them, not for himself. I continue to call on Congressman Polis to disavow this practice and return his insider trading profits to the taxpayers," concluded Weissmann.

Jared Polis hypocritically threw his support behind the STOCK Act (H.R. 1148) just days after revelations were made public by Stanford University’s Hoover Institute Fellow Peter Schweitzer's book in January. The book, which called Polis' investments "creative and cynical," documents how Polis used his congressional perch to obtain information, unavailable to the general public, to profit from the adoption of certain provisions of Obamacare as the bill moved through Congress. According to the book, Polis profited handsomely by using the inside information to make multi-million dollar investments in a private medical tourism company and in biotech ETF shares, each well positioned to profit from legislative action.